The Mechanisms of Eucaryotic Transcription conference will be an open international meeting devoted to the most recent advances in the rapidly evolving field of eucaryotic transcription. This meeting follows six highly successful meetings on the same topic held in Cold Spring Harbor in 1989, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, and 1999, and will be organized according to the same basic format. The meeting will be open with attendance limited only by the facilities available to a maximum of 450 participants. Oral presentations will consist of a combination of invited presentations and selected presentations from submitted abstracts. This ensures the participation of junior and senior leaders in the field and the presentation of the most exciting results emerging at the time of the meeting. The oral presentations will be complemented by poster presentations in three poster sessions, also selected from submitted abstracts. The areas covered by the meeting on Mechanisms of Eucaryotic Transcription include studies on 1) central components, 2) persistent effects on the template, 3) chromatin, 4) regulatory complexes I, 5) regulatory complexes II, 6) activation mechanisms, 7) regulatory pathways, and 8) promoter opening, clearance and elongation. A number of eucaryotic systems including mammalian systems, Drosophila, nematode, and yeast, will be represented. The subsequent meetings (2003 and 2005) will follow a similar format and will include topics that are highly relevant at the time of the meeting.